


Begin the Begin

by BuggyNess



Category: Fullmetal Alchemist - All Media Types, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood & Manga
Genre: F/M, FMA Big Bang 2016, Gen, Illustrations, Sci-Fi AU!, Science Fiction, artwork by dzioo, artwork by hirstories
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-24
Updated: 2016-09-19
Packaged: 2018-08-10 16:59:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 16,330
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7853515
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BuggyNess/pseuds/BuggyNess
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Post Brotherhood AU.  What if Father succeeded in obtaining perfection and left the five sacrifices on the dying Earth?  More than a millennia later,  Ed, Al and Winry are lured to the dead planet for reasons they don't yet understand in this futuristic sci-fi adventure.   Major character deaths.  edwin and royai.  FMABB 2016 entry.   Illustrations by Hirstories and Dzioo.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

  * For [dzioo](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=dzioo), [Noire](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Noire/gifts).



> This is my first FMA Big Bang entry and it was so much fun collaborating with Dzioo and Hirstories (Noire). The artwork will be posted with chapters. You're gonna just die - they did such a wonderful job! 
> 
> I was inspired by both an REM song (thus the title) and a very sad FMA fanfic where the events of the Promised Day go terribly wrong. I found the fic! See link at the end of the story.

 Inspired by [Divine Right of King](https://www.fanfiction.net/s/8493111/1/Divine-Right-of-Kings)s by [Oedipus Tex](https://www.fanfiction.net/u/844337/Oedipus-Tex).   Grab a box of tissues before you read that.   

[ ](http://archiveofourown.org/works/7841542)

[Artwork created by Hirstories (Le Confidant)](http://hirstories.tumblr.com)

 

 

**Prologue**

  


_A very long time ago, an arrogant alchemist created intelligent life.   On that day, a homunculus was born from the blood of a slave and sparked into being by an alchemic formula.  Upon opening his solitary eye for the first time, the tiny entity asked to be called the Dwarf in the Flask._

 

_Spending day in and day out inside a vial, the more this little blob of matter learned of his master and of human life, the more he desired.   This desire grew rampant within his soulless being until he devised a plan to escape his pitiful flask and roam freely.  No, not just roam freely, but to obtain perfection and rise not just out of his glass prison but above his creators, humans who possessed the one thing he never could:  a soul._

 

_Through his natural gift of manipulation, the Dwarf in the Flask enlisted the help of his master and of the very slave from which his master obtained the blood to create him.   Together, they convinced the King to sanction an endeavor that through alchemy, one achieved immortality.   Aging rapidly but not willing to ever let death take the throne from him,  the King pushed his subjects for the completion of dry canals encircling the whole nation of Xerxes.   Then, on one dark night, these circles were activated - effectively removing the souls of every person of that grand and ancient nation.   Half of those poor souls, including that of the king, were pulled into the one soulless creature who desired total power...the other half settled into the body of the poor slave._

 

 _Thus, in a single night, the civilization and Kingdom of Xerxes fell._  

 

“You don’t have to tell me that story again…”  The young man sputtered and winced at the pain the movement created.   

 

“Let me use my last one, my last soul to heal you.”  He pleaded with his son hoping after the battle he had enough life left to save the youth.   The wind blew fiercely across the Resembool meadow and long grasses thrashed against the deathly silent suit of armor splayed just outside of the transmutation circle the blind Colonel burned into the ground.   Van Hohenheim began to feel anguish like he had not felt since the Dwarf in the Flask forced immortality upon him, the former slave all those centuries ago.

 

Edward stammered before continuing.  “Quit being a dumbass of a father or I’ll sock you in the face!”   His breaths became labored and he closed his eyes and saw her, saw Winry again.   Tears began to fall as he remembered she was dead...they all were dead.   “I couldn’t let him suffer when I died...I couldn’t let him starve to death waiting for me any more...all alone in the nothing beyond the Gate.   It was Al’s idea.”   He kept his eyes closed.   “He, he didn’t want to go on...I don’t either.”  The alchemist then, smiled and began to chuckle.   “Winry’d be happy to see me missing the other leg...she’d have more metal to fit me with…”   

 

“Shhhhh, don’t talk anymore.”  Hohenheim cradled his dying son, knowing that even if Pinako and her granddaughter had survived the Promised Day, Edward has lost too much blood for them to save him.  The former immortal looked up at the cloudy sky and remembered the horrific events that led them back to his boys’ hometown.   He relived Father’s transmutation which stole millions of souls from the citizens of the once strong nation of Amestris and how he ripped the soul from the Earth itself in the process.   He recalled his countermeasure, his reverse array failing.   His own tears fell and mixed with the blood of his son as the painful image of the boys’ digging Winry’s and Pinako’s graves that morning populated his somber thoughts.  They refused any help as they completed their morbid task with Ed crying for his brother who lacked the ability.

 

“It was fast...he didn’t feel anything when he went.”  Ed narrated pulling the trigger of his former commanding officer’s firearm, the one he smuggled with him when he used the transmutation circle to see his Truth again...and his brother’s stolen body.   “I couldn’t let him suffer...I couldn’t.”   

 

“Ed, please don’t speak.”   Izumi placed her hand on the young alchemist’s cheek, a loving gesture toward the boy who she and her husband all but adopted.   Now that Sig was gone too, she wondered why she was encouraging the young man to hang on at all - for she had not much to live for herself.

 

“But, do you know...that wasn’t as hard as what he asked me to do when I came back...when I broke the rune that anchored his soul…”   He opened his golden eyes and turned his head to view the pile of metal armor that once housed his brother’s soul.   “I set him free.”   His voice grew softer as if he were falling asleep.  The alchemist closed his eyes.   

 

“Is he gone?”  The blind Colonel found Hohenheim’s shoulder with his right hand and squeezed it firmly.   

 

“Yes.”   

 

“Good.”   Mustang sighed and looked up into the stormy sky as the rain began to fall on his unseeing eyes.  He knew that the rest of them would soon follow...for there was nothing left for them as there was nothing left of Amestris...nothing left of this world.

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  



	2. Chapter 1

“ _Let's begin again, begin the begin._

_Let's begin again like Martin Luther, Zen,_

_The mythology begins the begin._ ”

….[ Begin the Begin ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=41lqQ4brvK4)by R.E.M.

  
  


**Chapter 1**

 

The cold metal corridor dampened her spirits as she made her way to work and she lumbered slowly, yearning to return to the comfort of her bed. The water-less shower she took a mere ten minutes earlier only served to get her clean - not vivify her body, or bring alertness or readiness for the long twenty-four hour shift ahead. Not even the steaming travel mug of reconstituted coffee adequately roused her. The young woman yawned, ignored any passers-by who noticed then she followed the complicated yet well-worn path toward the medical facility on the station. After taking four express lifts and crossing kilometers of metal and carpeted hallways, a familiar blue stripe appeared on either wall, signifying she arrived into the hospital sector. Finally, the clear glass doors of the Resembool Station medical facility loomed before her and she took a deep breath and stepped forward until the sensors activated the entryway, the doors separating with a calm whoosh.

 

“Another day, just get through another day.” She uttered.

 

Winry Rockbell couldn't sleep much anymore. Her nights consisted of dreams with strange heroes and even stranger villains. She saw faces she knew yet she'd never seen before in her life. When she awoke, this complete feeling of loss and grief overwhelmed her almost to the point of tears. Thinking it all stemmed from her being stuck on this backwoods station and not exploring the Sol-system like her classmates, she decided to put in for a transfer to one of the distant outposts that orbited Saturn...if only she could tell her mom first.

 

“Good morning, Winry.” A woman clad head to toe in blue smiled but walked with urgency past the young woman, not giving her an opportunity to engage in further conversation.

 

“...'morning” Winry tried to respond, but let her voice trailed off when the woman failed to stop. She made her way over to the morning roster of patients, taking her time to scrutinize the holographic display for her name.

 

ROCKBELL: Bay 4 Trauma w Prostheses

ROCKBELL: Bay 5 Trauma P85

 

“Great.” She rolled her eyes. “Damned cyborg.” She decided to take bay five and tackle the P85 first, Possible CyBorg. “Hope, they have him tethered.” Winry found her station desk and opened a drawer to retrieve an elastic hair tie then pulled her long blond hair back in a ponytail. Next she donned a surgical apron over her blue uniform. After grabbing her display tablet, she hurried to bay five.

 

Desperate screams assaulted her ears before the automatic doors opened to the trauma bays.

 

“Alphonse!”

 

Winry hurried to the source of the howls and found herself at the entrance to bay four, she only hesitated for a second before activating the floor sensor and opening the door.

 

“God damn you all! Let me see him!” A golden-haired young man cursed.

 

“Thank goodness, Dr. Rockbell!” One of the two orderlies attempting to restrain the shouting man looked to the woman with hope. “We need a sedative! He's combative!” The large man narrowly missed being punched by the patient's left fist – his only fist as his right arm was clearly absent.

 

“Just...just keep him busy and I'll get the medication!” She dodged the burly men, dropping her tablet as they struggled to keep the patient on the exam bed and also prevent him from seriously hurting them in the process. Winry made her way to the pharmaceutical replicator, entered her security code, programmed it for the correct dose and type of sedative, then waited the two seconds for the machine to construct it. A black panel slid open to reveal a small blue vial of liquid, which she slammed into an injector gun with snap. “Alright, big guy!” She lunged toward the fray, trying to find a square of his exposed skin and deliver the fast acting drug.

 

Smack!

 

“Doctor! You OK?” Orderly number two turned to assist but couldn't remove his hands from the patient.

 

“Yeah.” She tenderly rubbed her cheek, knowing he'd hit her hard enough to cause a bruise. “Just hold him steady...here it comes!” She lunged forward and found her mark on the patient's left shoulder and the injection gun let out a hiss as the powerful sedative hit the young man's blood stream. His constant slew of curse words quieted down and stopped as did his struggling with the battered orderlies.

 

“Bitch! Just gimme my brother...” The golden-haired youth stammered and finally fell back on the raised examination bed. The men, each on either side of the cot, held him by his shoulders. His words slurred and he fidgeted, trying in vain to move. “...just...just tell me...please.” His final struggle would be to keep his eyes open.

 

“I think we can lower him, now.” Winry set the gun on a side table and scooped her medical tablet from the floor. She scrutinized the slight form on the bed as one of the men pressed a button and the cot reclined until the patient was horizontal.

 

“We don't get paid enough for this crap.” One man mumbled as he inserted the boy's sole wrist into a restraint while the other man did the same with his ankles.

 

“Hey, this jerk has a fake leg too!”

 

“Two missing limbs?” Winry raised an eyebrow from her tablet's holographic image – a real time scan of the young man's body. She looked down to see that the visual assessment was correct. He lacked both a right arm and a left leg, although a now-mangled but high quality automail prosthetic left leg was now attached. She tapped the two dimensional image and a three dimensional rendering of the young man's leg materialized over the hand held screen revealing a very nasty looking transfemoral amputation.

 

“We've got him secured.” The man thumbed over his shoulder to the now silent and formerly hostile youth, currently strapped down and covered with a thin blanket. “He's strong for such a _little_ guy.”

 

“Fucker...” The patient on the cot spat, his hearing quite competent even if his body was immobilized.

 

“Don't get too close, Doc.” The second muttered as he walked past. “The other guy that came with him is in bay five...odds are he's an eighty-fiver too, so watch yourself.”

 

“Another?” She groaned. “Did they get him restrained?” She cursed under her breath. Five cyborgs in as many days and she needed a break. Suddenly, the horrific memory of the last one, the last artificial human's howl's as the station guard's weapons evaporated him played in her mind. She shook her head slightly as if it could rattle the unsettling sound from her head.

 

“Yeah...he wasn't as mean as that _little_ shit.” With that, the two men tripped the automatic door and exited with a whoosh as it closed behind.

 

“...not little.” The immobile man groaned.

 

“Great.” Winry took in a deep breath and came closer to the young man. “Mr. Hostile, you have some broken ribs...” She touched certain parts of the hologram emanating from her tablet and with her index finger and thumb manipulated the image of the patient's insides until she found all his injuries. “A slight concussion...and a smashed pinky toe.” She smiled.

 

“Kicked one of 'em.” He growled.

 

“Will you tell me who you are? What happened to you?” She tapped the screen and the hologram vanished allowing her to come to the head of the bed and peer down. He opened his eyes with a snap to reveal bright gold irises...such a color she had only seen one other time in a human. “I just want to help you...if you cooperate, we'll get you and your friend next door in the same recovery room...” Winry knew if the “friend” in the other bay were truly eighty-five percent or more machine that this was a lie. By Sol-System law, cyborgs were an abomination and were destroyed when apprehended.

 

The corners of his mouth curled and for a second he thought of a horrible euphemism for lady parts to yell at her. However, his amber eyes locked onto the doctor's soft face as strands of yellow corn silk-colored hair from her ponytail tumbled over her right shoulder and he just couldn't curse. Instead, he focused on the brewing red mark on the young woman's right cheek and remembered hitting her. Her cerulean eyes searched and she waited for him to answer. Somehow, deep within, he knew she would help him, she could get him back to Al, and they could continue their search. For a minute, he regretting striking her. Although she looked a bit older than him, he thought she was kind of cute.

 

“Well?” The young doctor stood straight back and crossed her arms.

 

“Ed...just call me Ed.”

 

“Good, at least that's a start...” Winry moved toward the wall behind the bed to a sleek black panel of controls, her fingers typing swiftly and lights responding to the heat from her body which put the healing mechanisms of the medical robots into motion. “Just relax and we'll get your wounds healed up and I'll take you over to see him...but your arm...” She searched the room, knowing that when the emergency responders arrived on site to space wrecks, collisions and other accidents, they were required to bring in any body parts be they metal or biologic. “Ah, here.” She picked up a pale blue sack from the second bed in the room and emptied its contents. A twisted metal arm fell to the mattress in three pieces. “...appears to be broken.”

 

“Fuck.” The quiet expletive sounded from his lips before he could stop it.

 

“Don't fret, we'll get you working again...just means you may have to hang around on Resembool Station longer than I think you want.” She thought to herself, “ _Like I am.”_ Winry failed to mention that she also acted as secondary automail engineer in the robotics lab. Somehow, she just really didn't want to be the one fitting this dangerous man with an even more dangerous steel arm. She rubbed her sore cheek. “Stay still so they can repair the damaged areas. It may feel strange when the bones knit back.” The young woman moved toward the doorway but a quiet sound made her turn.

 

“Hey...” He knew he'd been an asshole, but Ed didn't want to be here. He could have gotten his ship to the repair station and found his own mechanic to fix his arm...then he could fix Alphonse. If only he hadn't passed out and caused the crash. “Don't let them...don't let them take him...Al's no freak...he's, he's my brother.”

 

She turned without answering and stepped forward as the doors opened then snapped closed behind her. Winry exhaled, knowing that there was just nothing she could do. If the medical scanners registered fifteen percent or less biological matter, the patient in bay 5 would be destroyed. That was the law.

  


“I'm not a cyborg.” Alphonse lay on his own medical bed in bay five. If he had a stomach, he's sure it would be churning with worry...he may even have vomited if he still ate. His one golden-colored eye tracked the medics flittering around the small emergency room cell as they tried to ascertain just what he was. “You can search but there is no human in me.” _Anymore_. Al could easily pull the fabric restraints from their attachments and burst into the room across the hallway, the room where he knew his brother screamed. Yet, he also understood that any violence on his part could only frighten the hospital staff more than they already were. No, he had to stay calm and know that Ed was in good hands – they wouldn't let him die and despite his own scanning systems and perfunctory medical knowledge, there was nothing he could do for his brother. His lone left eye scanned the right side of his body. He had protected Ed from the explosion at the cost of the whole right part of his frame.

  
“Ok, people...” Winry stormed into the room, her blue eyes scanning the staff and equipment at hand until they fell upon the half-man tied down to the bed. “Holy shit.”


	3. Chapter 2

He stopped trying to keep the sand from entering their underground home a long time ago. Instead, the alchemist started making glass sculptures from the particles that littered the ancient ruins of Central City. The child loved them, asking over and over that he show him how to make them too. Of course, he instructed the boy on how to visualize and understand a very basic formula, then deconstruct the silica into base components and finally, reconstruct them into whatever he imagined.

“Father?” The little boy looked up at the elder, the child's golden eyes wide with glee. “I made another, you wanna see?” He tugged at the man's sleeve.

“And what do you have there?” The older man pushed his desk chair back and he adjusted his spectacles, his own amber irises glowing by the candle light.

“I made a little alchemist, just like you told me from your stories! Come see!”

“Alright, alright.” The elder let the child pull his white shirt sleeve until he was directed to the “playroom.” The boy's alchemical genius never failed to surprise him, and he often indulged his tiny protege. However, a knot formed in the pit of his stomach, hoping the boy constructed another glass sculpture and not, not anything like the last time. “Show me.”

“Here he is.” The boy stepped aside, revealing a large transmutation circle etched in chalk or sandstone on the rock floor. In the center of the circle, a horrific brown and gray mass of flesh squirmed. “I saw the little white ghost boy again.” He pouted. “He made me come back and yelled at me the whole time.” The creature groaned and wisps of golden hair blew out of its twisted face. “He's better than the last one, I almost have it right, don't I?”

“Oh, child.” The man came closer to the almost human mass of pain writhing on the floor. “You cannot bring back the dead, you do not have this man's soul.” He looked sternly upon the child. “You must stop this, all you are accomplishing is making a living thing suffer so.” The elder knelt down to the creature's head and its eyes opened, causing the man to jump. Golden eyes stared up at him. “I will give you peace.” He placed his hand on the poor being's head and blue sparks traveled from his flesh around the mangled cranium of the creature. It didn't scream or struggle, it just fell down in silence.

“Aw, did you have to kill him?” The boy pouted again, upset that his creation had been destroyed. Before his father could answer, the man performed another transmutation until the mass on the floor disintegrated into several piles of different colored powders and a puddle of water.

“I want you to put each element into a glass vial, classify it then label it and put it away.” He stood. “The liquid too, I'll leave it up to you to figure out a method of picking up every last molecule.”

“But that will take me days!” The boy whined.

“Correct. And in that time, you will reflect on why you should not try to create a human.” He started to walk away, leaving the child.

“It's not fair!” Tears welled up in his eyes. “It's not fair!”

“What's not fair?” He turned to glare at the boy.

“It's not fair because YOU make all the golems! YOU made me and I'm human!” The child couldn't stop the tears now and they fell freely, he wiped his face with the side of his arm.

The elder didn't answer. Instead, he ignored the child, turned and walked away, yet spoke loud enough for the boy to hear him. “The Golems are not human...they are mud and clay. They have no soul. You are not human either...you also have no soul.”

Back in the confines of his study, his door shut securely so he couldn't hear his child's cries or curses, Father fell into his chair with a thud. He adjusted his necktie and leaned back, looking up at the mosaic ceiling. He scrutinized the scene portrayed in ceramic tiles in midnight hues of blue, black and glistening gold and silver: A lion, the Sun, the Moon. These figures started a reflection upon the long memory of his equally long life. Squandered. His gift of ultimate power had been wasted over the last thousand or so years until only two of the previous millions of souls remained and neither were his own. The only thing other than the dual souls he possessed was his alchemy. Well, and this boy. This boy. Father knew the child was neither good nor evil, there could be nothing without a soul to lean one way or the other. Yet, the boy's penchant for alchemy left him stymied because an artificial human shouldn't be able to perform alchemy, let alone a soulless human. Father sighed and looked upon the book on his desk. He wondered if he wasted his third soul, the soul he exchanged with Truth to create the human child and not another homunculus pulled from within his most devious sins. No, his calculations were perfect, his transmutation brilliant. Now that all the souls within him had been released either by use or he had set free to the Otzer on his own, he need only wait until they returned to him and he could finally right his wrong. He waited four hundred years to cause this tragedy and another thousand before realizing and trying to correct his folly.

Perhaps when that happened, he could truly become human himself.

He'd forgotten when that became so important to him to begin with.

 

* * *

 

 

The boy kicked a pile of his former creation and let the substance float down onto the hard stone. All he desired was to please Father yet all he managed to accomplish was upsetting the man. He felt useless and angry. Why did having a soul make him human anyway? Why was that so important to Father? He seethed and stomped over to the pile of embroidered pillows in the corner of the playroom and he fell backward.

“Maybe if I weren't so little, he'd teach me real alchemy.” The boy scrunched his brows hard and concentrated. Ever since he created his first human, he'd been able transmute without a circle. He smiled because this baffled Father, who searched his body saying he should have lost something but he remained whole. Father theorized that a lack of a soul kept Truth from taking payment, something he explained happened to human alchemists who performed alchemy to create one of their own. It didn't matter, he just wanted the man to take him into his arms and praise him, he yearned for something, acknowledgment...love even. The child began to concentrate, as he did a small grunt emanated from him. This tiny sound transformed into a louder yell as he deconstructed his body and reconstructed his cellular structure effectively aging his form. The tearing and re-knitting of his bones hurt the most, turning that yell into a scream, the sound catching the astute ears of his father.

The elder, having heard his child in distress, leapt from his comfortable seat, letting the chair fall to the floor as he exited his study in haste to reach the child. Thinking that perhaps he was too harsh on the boy, that thought exited his mind as he caught sight of a new form, lingering inside the still intact human transmutation circle used to make the monster he killed a few minutes earlier.

“Fa...Father?” Instead of the high pitched intonation of a little child he'd known for a scant seven years, a more masculine voice carried through the large subterranean abode.

“Child?” Before him, stood an unclothed young man, his golden eyes on verge of tears and his short golden hair replaced with shoulder length locks. The older man smiled, understanding that his child, the small boy he just reprimanded earlier used the materials left over from his failed human transmutation to reform his own body, finally becoming an adult.

For the first time since before the recent accident - a thing even he never planned for, Father smiled a genuine, warm smile.


	4. Chapter 3

Edward stuck out his tongue when the nurse brought his meal tray. The woman, to her credit, barely flinched and set the food down on the bedside table and walked away. The young pilot's stomach rumbled and he grabbed at the wheeled table with his left hand.

“Fuck it.” Having no luck at getting the whole tray with his non-dominant hand, Ed picked up a sandwich and started eating.

“Brother...” Al's voice chastised his sibling for cursing. “That's not necessary.”

“...Doesn't hurt.” He mumbled between munching. “Where's that Doctor Gearhead? She said she'd fix my arm.”

“You really should be nicer to her. She's working really hard to help us.” He added. “And I could tell she really didn’t want to...we’re lucky, you know.”

“She knows that when Mustang gets off his ass and approves the funding, the military will dump a shitload of cenz in her lap...that's all the motivation she needed.” The young man tried not to avert his eyes from his brother's half of a face, yet, he sorely wished for the new arm to fix the damage to Al’s robotic body.

“I don't know...I think there's something more.” Al noticed Ed's eyes just wouldn't meet his sole remaining one. He didn't need to expel air or sigh, yet he did just that.

“We are so close now, I just know it! What we've been searching for...it's down there.” Ed motioned toward the window and the barren planet spinning below the station. He reached for the metal cup on the tray and took a swig. “Ack!” White liquid spewed from his mouth almost as fast as it entered. “Fuckin' milk!” He slammed the mug down on the table and wiped the offending substance from his upper lip. “How the hell do they get milk on a space station anyway?”

“It's powdered or replicated.” Winry stood sulking over Ed's sickbed, she'd entered so swiftly that the doors just swished shut. “...and it is dietary perfect nutrition when you have broken bones. You should drink it.”

“No way, never liked it.” Ed spat and grabbed a cup of pudding, licking the stuff right out of the container, not even bothering for a spoon.

“Pudding has milk in it.” She snarled.

“The chocolate covers it up.” Ed smacked his lips, trying to get all the sweet stuff. “Do you have my arm fixed or are you here to bitch me and Al to death?”

“Ed!” Alphonse admonished.

“Ungrateful!” The doctor stomped back and forth. “I'll have you know that I do have your arm done!”

“About damn time!”

“I should chuck it through the trash shoot you tiny little asshat!”

“Who are you calling TINY!” He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. Girl or not, no one called him small.

“Miss Rockbell! Brother!” Al turned toward the fray. “Please!”

“He started it!” Ed and Winry pointed at each other and yelled in unison.

“Fine....” Winry exhaled and blew a tuft of hair from her eyes. “Why does this robot call you Brother, anyway?” She carried a bag slung across her shoulder which she let slide down her right arm and set it on the bed next to the still seething young man.

“Uh...I thought it'd be fun to program him to think we're brothers...say, is that my arm?” He tried to change the subject. “It looks a little different.”

“I couldn't quite understand the power sourcing used in the remains of your old arm...lithium batteries?”

“Yeah, what of it?”

“Primordial.” She teased. “So I set you up with state of the art technology, not something used when people actually lived on Earth.”

“Hey!”

“The arm's powered by your own body heat- that is, the internal temperature generated by your cells, so you have to keep up your nutrition – milk for example...” She ignored the fuming boy on the bed and pulled out a gleaming platinum and titanium arm. “...is perfectly and nutritionally sound.”

Alphonse's resulting chuckle earned a glare from his brother while the young woman held the arm in place.

“As much as this is an upgrade compared to your old arm...” She aligned the arm to the bare port on Ed's right shoulder and readied for insertion. “There's no way to keep it from hurting like a bitch when I do this!” Without so much as a count down or warning, she shoved the pin into it's housing and twisted a bolt effectively connecting the metal to Edward's nervous system. This resulted in a horrific yowl from the young man- a yowl that morphed into a slew of curses.

“God damn it!” He puffed as sweat poured from his forehead. “You should have warned me first!” The pain of limb insertion just about took his breath away forcing him to lay back.

“Big baby.” Winry huffed again and started tightening the arm's attachments to the port. “I was lucky only the plating of your leg needed work…” She grunted at adjusting the last bolt. “The leg could use an upgraded power source too, you’ll just have to deal with it since you’re in such a hurry!” Winry stood back to admire her work. “Do you want me to synthesize skin? Could make the metal totally invisible, you know. You don't have to walk around like a machine.” She wished she'd bit her tongue as Alphonse lowered what remained of his head. “Oh...I didn't mean...” She turned to the android. “I'm sorry.”

“No, don't have time or the need to cover this up, just need you to get the hell out so I can fix Al!” He wanted the young woman out of the room.

“Fine. But just so you know, I doubt there's enough salvaged parts to put him back together and you'll need a proper workshop.” Winry put her hands on her hips. “And, this Mustang you keep sending messages to, he's not responding.” The blond turned on the ball of her foot and made way toward the automatic doors. “If I don't see some cenz soon, I'll have to take it from your wreck of a ship...I could pawn the light drive easily...”

“Just scram!” Ed hollered as the woman stuck out her tongue and exited, leaving the two alone.

“Brother, she's right...

“Listen, I can fix you, don't worry.” Ed hopped down and over to the forlorn form on the opposite bed. “I can use the bed frame if I need to.” He scanned the lumps of metal and wires laying next to Alphonse, confident in what he was about to do. “Don't worry.” Edward clapped his hands together and a soft melodious ring sounded. Blue sparks emanated from his closed palms and trickled through the young man's fingers as he slammed them on the android's torso. Slowly, the damaged side of the robot began to reform and indeed, some of the metal of the bed began to disappear as they were deconstructed and reconstructed into circuits and servos enabling the broken machine to move and walk again.

“It's not that I didn't think you couldn't, you know.” Al, now complete with a right arm, torso and leg, hopped off his bed and faced Edward. “But I think Mustang's not going to bail us out this time.” He sighed, half of his face, still metal and plastic, with a glowing golden eye. “And we're going to need all the help we can get...” His right eye's electronics focused on the large window in the hospital room, one that held a spectacular view of the planet below. “...If we're going to get down there.”

“Damn it.” Ed returned the robot's artificial sigh with a real one. “I know.” The young man stood next to the taller android and they both took in the wondrous sight of the Earth from space. “I'm sorry I couldn't repair your face and skin...I don't have enough materials, but at least you can get around until I can.”

“Yeah.” Alphonse stared wistfully at the brown and beige planet. “You know...thousands of years ago, the Earth was covered with water, they used to call it a big blue marble.”

“That's hard to imagine.”

“Something catastrophic happened and the atmosphere slowly eroded away. In the time it took for the planet to die, mankind managed to escape to the stars.”

“You're daydreaming again, snap out of it.”

“I can't help it. This body has the knowledge of humanity programmed into it and I can access it. I don't know why you did that when you built it.”

“Al, when I did it, I sure as Hell didn't know my brother's soul'd end up residing in a robot I constructed as a school assignment.” He turned and walked toward a sleek black display on the far wall. “I needed to impress Teacher with the thing's artificial intelligence program so I hacked into the military database and downloaded their entire library.” Ed placed his new right hand on the panel. “But...if I'd just put in the basic A.I. like I was supposed to, we'd never have found it.” He lowered his head, shame and regret flooding his thoughts. “And you'd not be stuck in my robotics project.”

“Stupid.” Alphonse walked toward his brother. “I'm the one who read the first alchemy book. I'm the one who showed you.” He hated it when Ed blamed himself entirely. “If we hadn’t ever found it, I’d be dead.” After all, it took both of them to perform the transmutation that took his brother's limbs and his entire body.

“Say, Al...” The young man perked up and thumbed at the shiny black panel. “Can you access this? I need you to do something for me.”

“I should be able to.” He placed his metal right hand on the panel and and exchange of data between the machines began. “I don't have the required codes...trying to bypass the firewall.”

“If my commanding bastard's cut us off and if Dr. Rockbell won't help... I've got a plan.” Ed's lips curled into a devious smile.

“Brother...”

 

* * *

 

 

“Sir, are you going to answer any of Edward's transmissions?” Riza Hawkeye adjusted her gaze only slightly toward her superior and then rest her mahogany eyes back upon her console and re-read the Major's requisition for repair funds and leave to enter Earth's atmosphere. She absolutely understood Roy Mustang's motives for ignoring his young officer. Mostly, he disregarded Edward's pleas out of spite. The young man frequently failed to report in or at all and truly, the young major spiraled off his commanding officer's radar, neglecting to even broadcast his location as required by Sol military command. Failing to recognize the Colonel Mustang at all, left said commander fuming mad.

“No.” Roy also barely raised his ebony eyes toward his Lieutenant.

“Edward may have been injured...Alphonse was partially destroyed as well.”

“Are you trying to make me feel bad, Lieutenant?” This time he did take a moment to look at the blond woman across from his desk. “Because that's not going to happen.”

“Not at all, Sir.” She recoiled. “However, we've not been out in the field in months...it may be a morale booster for the team to go retrieve our young Major...” Hawkeye never meddled with her Colonel's treatment toward the Elrics. She did, however use her skills to carry her superior's attention toward a more pleasant outcome for the boys than he'd originally have imagined. She could manipulate Mustang without him even knowing.

“You just want to see the home world again, don't you, Lieutenant?” Roy smiled. Women could be very cunning when they wanted something and Riza Hawkeye's discrete form of scheming rivaled only his own. He smiled, knowing she probably thought him oblivious. “I don't know why...it's just a round mass of sand...” His dark gaze turned toward the observation window and the many hued gray and brown rings of Saturn.

She'd manage to move closer to him and the spectacular view of the ringed planet. “I feel compelled to the Earth. Do you feel the same thing?”

“Yeah.” His wistful gaze transformed into ire. “...and I don't like it because there's no reason for it.”

“Do you want me to organize the team...call it an inspection of Resembool station?” She knew such inspection wasn't out of the ordinary since the station lay within their direct territory. “And pick up the Elrics while we're there?”

“General Grumman will have to be informed, I can trust him.” Mustang's baritone voice nearly caused the woman to jump. “I'll report directly to the General...and you rally my men.” He turned and briskly stormed out of the room, the automatic doors swishing at his coattail.

“Yes Sir!” Riza knew her commander failed to hear her, but she quickly moved her attention to making the arrangements for their trip.


	5. Chapter 4

****Winry Rockbell spent the entire morning after inserting Edward's arm researching the young man. She didn't have to search the Sol-Net long to find enough information to fill her aching head. Edward Elric, currently nineteen, recruited into the Solar military forces at the tender age of thirteen. Nothing in any of the public files gave any reason why they'd recruit someone so young, especially when eighteen was the minimum enlistment age. Even those rare protegees attending the academies who managed to graduate early were assigned desk jobs and low-risk positions until they could be of age for a ranking position with the military. And, Edward Elric did not attend any of the Sol-System military academies. Not one. She combed through article after article of Major Elric finding Alphonse always accompanied him.

 

“Funny...” She mumbled to herself. “Cyborgs are executed, but build a robot with human-like A.I. and there's no problems.” The irony made her cringe.

 

After finding absolutely no pre-military history of Major Elric, the good doctor gave up. She knew he had to have a family somewhere, had to have been born on a station or moon colony. It suddenly hit her that someone removed this young man's information from the public record. That only meant that whatever there was to find out about the golden-eyed hot head, she'd never have access to, unless she could craft her way into and crack that shell.

 

She nearly gave up before the idea struck her to search under the name Alphonse Elric. The first speck of information she discovered came in the form of a news byline. A small article printed on the Agricultural Sector of Resembool Station reflected upon her tired eyes. Indeed, this huge space station orbiting Earth held a vast farming “ring.” Thousands of kilometers in diameter, the “fields” on the farming ring encircled the station proper and the gentle spinning of the ring generated that part of the station's gravity. Winry didn't have a window at her medical station, but she could clearly recall, the lush and green ground of the agri-ring. When she was a little girl, she'd stare at the rows and rows of wheat and corn as they slowly moved and she counted the tiny little houses of the farmers who worked these fields and dreamed of running barefoot on the cool green grass as the sun's rays warmed her cheeks.

 

Instead, her childhood consisted of learning machinery, circuits and metals. Despite growing up in the station's Engineering Section, Winry picked up her mother's penchant for first aid – she often tended to scrapes and cuts from metal work. The turning point in her young life happened shortly before her fifteenth birthday when a sudden power outage trapped the girl on a lift. One of the passengers on that elevator was a young woman on her way to the Medical Sector to give birth. Cooped up for eight hours and using the dim light from the bio luminescent strip on the ceiling, Winry Rockbell delivered her first baby safely. Breaking from family tradition, the young girl decided to go to medical school instead of becoming a station engineer.

 

Although her field of study became medicine, her hobby remained with metal and wires. She built and crafted robotic prosthetics in her spare time. Due to the advancement of human medicine, only rare instances meant her robotics skills came to use. Sure, there were accidents here and there, but science progressed so that tiny appendages such as fingers and toes could be grown in her lab and transplanted. She even successfully replicated and transplanted a human eye for a blind man. Winry was completely certain that soon, and in her lifetime, she'd successfully grow a human arm or leg to be transplanted. Until that time, the young woman remained content to install automail limbs on her patients who needed them.

 

“Local boy killed in farming accident...” She read the article title out loud but finished the rest silently. It told of an unfortunate event with a threshing machine which ended the life of Alphonse Elric and injured his brother Edward. “Oh.” Winry's stomach churned as she realized that Ed most likely built and programmed the robot out of grief for his dead sibling and this horrible event probably took Ed's arm and leg. Accidents happen, but it still did not explain why the military recruited a thirteen-year-old boy. A few more search results materialized upon her screen and suddenly, she faced the image of both Elric brothers. Even though youth and baby fat framed his small face, the young doctor could not deny that the robot in the room just by her work station looked exactly like the boy in the photograph.

 

“Oh, shit.” She cursed upon realization that utter grief possessed a farm boy talented in robotics to build a robot to fill the hole in his heart and his life after the loss of his brother. Winry didn't know if she had it in her to get any more involved with Edward Elric than doctor/patient. Still, she felt compelled to speak to the man so she closed her workstation and made her way toward the hospital ward. The young woman steeled her resolve to face the sad truth behind the Elrics, that and she had secured workshop space for Edward to repair his robotic companion. With a woosh of the automatic door, she entered the room.

 

“Hey!” Alphonse greeted her. A whole Alphonse.

 

“What the hell?” She walked into the room to see the android sitting complacently on Ed's bed. His missing half restored to metal and circuitry leaving a weird delineation between artificial flesh and hard machinery from one side of his body to the other in almost a perfect line. Winry didn't understand, she hadn't been gone but a few hours. Even with all her expertise, she was sure she couldn't have repaired the boy. “How...” Edward, not in her line of sight answered.

 

“I fixed him.” He stood, fully dressed in Resembool Station basic attire: blue shirt, black pants and shoes, but his golden hair neatly plaited. The young man maneuvered around the remains of the second bed and stood to the young doctor's left.

 

“But...how?”

 

“Brother used alchemy.” Al, also dressed the blue and black except his shirt had long sleeves, evidently to hide his unmatched limbs.

 

“Alchemy?” Winry's brain kicked into second gear, searching for anything she knew on that subject leading to her to burst out. “Alchemy is illegal!” Indeed, among the colonists in the Sol-System, the ancient art which predated modern chemistry had been outlawed for centuries until it's practice was only written about in obscure history books.

 

“I know...” Ed tried to calm the girl. “It's one of the reasons we are here.”

 

“Winry...” Al's kind half face implored. “We need your help. Ed's commanding officer isn't going to authorize the repair of our ship...we need transport to Earth.”

 

“What the hell can I do about that?” She backed up a step, took in the two from one angle. “I'm just a cog on this station...I don't have a ship!” Indeed, since she graduated medical school, she'd been stationed out here in the boondocks when she longed to visit the most distant stations. Not even having her family close by quelled the overwhelming dread of being trapped orbiting the dead planet. This was an irrational fear she always held for as long as she could remember. The Earth offered her only death.

 

“No, you have the access codes, all station residents do. Al can unlock them and get us a way to the planet.”

 

“You mean, you want me to help you steal a ship?” There goes her career. If she used her station badge everything would surely be traced back to her. “Forget it!” She waved her hands in front of her horizontally in emphasis.

 

“Winry, we have to be on the planet...” Alphonse came close, so close, she could have sworn there were tears forming in his sole human looking eye, an impossibility. “There's going to be a solar eclipse soon and we have to be in its center.” His voice soothed her anger.

 

“I, I, don't understand? Why? The Earth is a death trap, there's nothing down there.”

 

“I have to restore Alphonse.” Ed almost whispered in her left ear. “I'm so close and can't give up now.” He sounded almost regretful.

 

“I'm sorry.” She had no desire to end her medical and mechanical career by helping them commit a very serious crime. “I can't.” Secondly, she feared the Earth more than the vacuum of space – there was no way she would set foot on its bleak surface.

 

“I'm sorry too, Winry.” Alphonse reached out and gently held her hands. “I'm sorry fate led us to you...” His words, almost hypnotic, distracted the woman from his sibling. “I'm sorry we got you involved in our mess...”

 

“...that's alright.” She tried to tell him just to wait for a bit, she was sure that Edward's commanding officer would send word soon.

 

Whoooooooooosh!

 

The sound of the hypodermic injector stopped the doctor from finishing her sentence. Edward backed away, still holding the gun he'd manufactured from the metal bed. It held the same strong sedative used on him the day before – he'd memorized the construction formula as Winry punched it in the black console in the trauma room.

 

“You asshole!” Her left hand traveled quickly to the sore spot on her neck, where she'd been stuck but it was too late as the cold chemical traveled in her veins, feeling icy as it went. Her legs began to wobble but she felt determined to sock the human Elric at least once in the eye before she succumbed.

She failed, instead, Winry fell forward into the hard arms of the android who swooped her up. The last sight in her blurry vision before everything went black was Edward looking down upon her, his long bangs almost obscuring his face.

Illustration by [ dzioo.tumblr.com ](http://dzioo.tumblr.com/)

 

“Find the badge, Al.”

 

“Right.” Alphonse gently laid the doctor's body on Edward's bed and he began to rifle through her uniform. Most of the station's working residents had a badge or pin on their person which gave them access to their job sites, living quarters and kept track of their personal currency. At least on all the other stations they'd visited and when they used to live on Resembool Station years ago, this was commonplace. Yet, he found none on Winry. “She must have a new implant...I can't find anything we can take with us.” He glared at Edward with his one eye. “I told you I didn't like doing this!”

 

“Great.” Ed palmed his head and tried to think. He knew it was a possibility that this young doctor was implanted with a badge as it was cutting edge technology, but he'd banked on her wearing one. “We'll just have to take her with us. Can you find it?”

 

“Yeah.” Al stood back and scanned the body before him. His sensors removed her clothing and converted her to a three dimensional image in his electronic mind. He spotted a small red beacon on the inside of her right wrist. “Here.” The robot carefully held up the woman's arm and pointed to the area where the implant lay. “You know, we are not only going to steal a ship, but now it's kidnapping.”

 

“Whatever.” Ed replied with a sigh. “Not like I'm counting the crimes I've committed just to get here anyway, may as well add a few more.” He started for the door. “It's going to be hard getting her to the launch bay, can you carry her?” He didn't wait for his brother to respond, but the gentle android gingerly picked up the doctor once more and followed Edward out of the room.

 

They ran in tandem through the carpeted corridors, and ducked out sight to avoid capture or suspicion. Once or twice they had no choice but to walk past others but when they did, they pretended to giggle or laugh and mumble the girl had a little too much to drink. It earned stares and most likely they'd be reported, but it didn't slow them down. Finally, the launch bay door came into view. The two waltzed into the enormous metal platform with small shuttles and larger fighter and cargo ships arranged in neat lines.

 

“I can't see The Nina, do you, Brother?” Al didn't need to really ask his companion as he'd neatly scanned and cataloged all the vessels in that particular bay in an instant. He knew their ship had to be in another launch site on the station and it had sustained pretty bad damage.

 

“She's not here...Mustang didn't authorize the repairs so we'll have to liberate a ride to the planet.” Edward began eyeballing their choices until he found a small shuttle. “It's also lunch time for the maintenance crews...not many here to stop us.” He moved quickly toward the craft as Al followed. As they came to the entrance, Al waved Winry's hand by the sensor and the door opened. The three found themselves safely inside and out of view.

 

The shuttle, pretty modest by Ed's standards, had just enough space to carry the three, it also contained four environmental maintenance suits – evidently, whoever used this shuttle did work on the outside of the station and these suits kept them alive. The brothers felt relieved to find the suits because they would be useful once the craft landed - the earth barely had any atmosphere and they'd need to breathe. Al then took great care securing Dr. Rockbell in her seat, gently tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. He frowned at the now blue bruise marring her pretty face. Finally, he and Ed strapped themselves in and then began preparations for disembarking Resembool Station.

 

“Please provide your launch permissions.” The tinny voice of the station robot came through the shuttle's speakers.

 

Alphonse, who was closest to Winry, moved her right hand so that her wrist was over the scanning mechanism implanted in the arm of her chair. He pressed a button and the scanner turned red.

 

“Thank you, Dr. Rockbell.” The ship bay doors opened and an unobstructed view of the desert planet reflected in a set and a half of eyes.

 

“Are you ready, Brother?”

 

“Yeah, I am, Al.” Ed looked into the eye of the robot, then commanded the shuttle through the open doors and toward the coordinates on Earth he'd memorized from ancient alchemy tomes - the same electronic books they'd read as children and ultimately led them to this day.

 

“Where the fuck are you taking me?” Winry, groggily yelped and she felt her stomach lurch as the ship gained speed and the big brown sandiness of the planet's surface came closer and closer.

  


                 Illustration by [ dzioo.tumblr.com ](http://dzioo.tumblr.com/)

 


	6. Chapter 5

Deep in thought, President Ling Yao ignored the briefing his attache and bodyguard Lan Fan currently delivered. He reclined in his plush high backed chair and made out a few words yet thought of other things…like Lan Fan in a swimming suit instead of the black and gray station-issued military style garb she always wore to work. Still, he’d worked and clawed his way to the top command at Resembool Station and he felt he could daydream a bit about becoming the Supreme Sol-System Commander someday.

“…Although I have a few more items, this just came in…” She tapped the screen on her thin tablet and a holographic display materialized between her and Ling. Winry Rockbell’s station identification photograph appeared. “Dr. Winry Rockbell activated launch of one of our maintenance craft.”

“Yeah?” He halfheartedly answered.

“Her implant gave her access but, someone hacked into the launch system security to actually get the shuttle out of the bay.”

“Uh, huh.” Ling couldn’t be bothered with a stupid missing shuttle craft.

“I thought the good doctor was taking a joy ride, but watch this…” She hit her screen and the crystal clear moving image came up in the hologram. It showed Alphonse carrying an unconscious Winry through hallway after hallway and Edward following. “It looks like she was kidnapped. I’ve ordered station police unit 503 to intercept and bring her back.”

“Yes!” His attention piqued upon the mention of the word “kidnapped,” the commander stopped daydreaming as he could attend to something exciting for once. “Finally something happens here!”

“Sir, the facial recognition program has determined Major Edward Elric and his android are responsible. Also, Dr. Rockbell is the physician charged with treating Major Elric…he was brought here after his spacecraft crashed earlier this week.”

“How are they faring? Can they bring everyone back safely?”

Lan Fan knew the Commander referred to the police. “They are currently engaged.” She tapped her screen again and an image of three spacecraft and a small shuttle came into view. “The shuttle is ignoring their pleas to return…shall I give them the order to disable it and tow it back?”

“Only if they can do so without causing any casualties.” All he needed was a public relations nightmare the death of a pretty doctor could cause.

“Sir…we are getting a transmission from Sol Command…”

“Right now? Terrible timing, don’t you think?”

“Colonel Mustang is arriving in a little under an hour…”

“Great, more military brass. They’ll want to take control of this situation so we better do so first.” His previous jovial manner morphed into seriousness in an instant. If he could, by way of his subordinates, arrest Edward Elric and rescue the doctor, word would reach all the system stations and could only help him in the general elections in two years.

“I’m not sure you’re going to like this…” Her dark eyes told him she was about to drop more bad news. “Colonel Mustang is Edward Elric’s commanding officer.”

“Shit.”

* * *

“Watch that one over there!” Al yelled as his brother piloted the shuttle evasively trying to outrun the police craft surrounding them.

“Just let me drive!” He moved the ship drastically to the left, hitting the spaceship hovering next to them causing several alarms to go off and lights to flash.

“Are you the worst pilot in the system?” Winry screeched and held onto the straps of her seat belts. “You already crashed one ship, you’re going to wreck another!”

“Shaddup, I know what I’m doing!”

“She’s got a point…” Al spoke before thinking.

“Can it Al, I’m flying here!”

“Brother! We’ve sustained damaged to the aft thrusters, We need them to land!”

“Setting autopilot for entry into the Earth’s atmosphere…what’s left of it.” The ship seemed to stop shaking and even out a bit as they came closer and closer to the planet’s surface.

“Uh…Brother…we have another problem.” Alphonse spoke so fast, Ed almost didn’t hear.

“What?”

“Tractor beam!”

Suddenly, the ship shook violently and all forward momentum ceased. The loud noises and alarms maintained their annoying chirps and buzzing – sounds that failed to drown out the expletives pouring from the young pilot’s mouth. He took a deep breath and released his seatbelt.

“Fuck it!” Ed stormed behind their seats and stood watching the sandy planet spin peacefully before them.

“Brother…don’t you dare!” Al spun his chair around, he saw the look in Ed’s eyes, he was getting ready to transmute. “You cannot transmute the beam! It’s light – we don’t fully understand every particle that makes it up! Hell, they’re still fighting on whether photons are particles at all!”

“Got to stop them, don’t see how else since the shuttle has no weapons.” Ed grinned, his canine teeth glowing with the flashing lights reflecting off their enamel. He slapped his hands together.

* * *

Colonel Mustang moved swiftly through the carpeted corridors of Resembool Station. The greeting party met his ship and led him and a team consisting of First Lieutenant Riza Hawkeye, Second Lieutenants Jean Havoc and Heymans Breda, Warrant Officer Vato Falman and Sergeant Major Kain Furey. The “Whole Fuckin’ Squad” as Maes Hughes told him over beers nights before. Before long, the large group entered the offices of the Resembool Station Commander, Ling Yao.

“Ah! Colonel Mustang, good to finally meet the rising star of the Sol-System!” Indeed, Ling had seen news feed on Mustang’s courageous exploits, he knew the man jetted on the fast track to which Ling hoped to hitch a ride.

“Likewise, Commander.” Succinct and to the point, the Colonel removed his overcoat and handed it to his First Lieutenant, who took the garment and stood silently by his side.

“I hope you don’t mind, the rest of my team need to perform their inspection.”  He motioned to Fury, Havoc, Falman and Breda.  Ling nodded and the four turned on their heals and exited.   “…First Lieutenant Hawkeye and I came here to interview you…and inquire on my subordinate who arrived here several days ago.”

“You mean Major Elric?” Ling’s eyes opened wide enough to see the Colonel nod. “Well, there’s been an incident involving the young Major…” Ling found it amusing that every monitor in this office broadcast the current chase between the stolen shuttle and his police, yet the Colonel stood there oblivious.

“An incident?” Roy already felt his blood pressure rise.

“Yes. It seems he kidnapped a citizen and stole a spacecraft…the police ships are pursuing him now.” Ling thumbed at one of the large monitors.

Mustang and Hawkeye scrutinized the one sided dog fight between the tiny shuttle and the much larger police crafts. Suddenly, a bright green beam of light poured forth from one of the ships and hit the shuttle, causing that craft to stop all forward momentum. The Colonel sighed, realizing that soon Ed would be in custody and there was probably no way he could keep his young subordinate out of the stockade now.

Boom!

                                                          

                                                                                                                                                           Illustration by [@hirstories](https://tmblr.co/mbKOrbVUKuvtGehwcX5zdHg)

 

 

A nearly cataclysmic explosion rolled from around the shuttle, pushing the green beam back and hitting the police craft. Instead of the shuttle being towed back toward the station, all the police ships were sent soaring through space, riding a ring of pale green, the remnants of the tractor beam. At the same time, the smaller craft carrying the Elrics and Doctor Rockbell was catapulted forward and into the gravitational pull of the Earth. Out of control, the shuttle spun and drifted out of the sight of the station’s sensors.

 

* * *

 

“Father?” The young man, now sporting a short haircut and wearing better fitting clothing – a pair of brown slacks and white button up shirt, stood outside the Elder’s study. “Somethings not right out here.”

“What do you mean?” Father noted his child’s uncharacteristic nervousness.

“The mud-men, they are all returning!”

“I see.” The elder stood from his desk and calmly exited his study, his child right behind him. Indeed, all the “mud-men” or golems he created were congregating one by one in the large open corridor outside. These human-like sculptures of soil and water, mud and clay lumbered from side to side, foot to muddy foot, their blank faces sculpted into the visages of persons long dead. “You’ve finally finished your work.” Father addressed the crowd. “Thank you.” He raised both his hands. “Go now, to all corners and guard your hard toil. Bring me any living humans you should encounter…cause them no harm.” Without another sound, the mass of living earth turned and retreated into the tunnels and out of sight.

“That was weird.” The youth muttered.

 

* * *

 

He didn’t know if his body or the craft still moved through the scant atmosphere of the planet as every iota of sensory info his neurons fed to his brain told him he lay immobile. Ed didn’t remember getting back into the safety of his seat and he sure as hell didn’t buckle himself back down.   A wet, iron-like substance filled his mouth, causing him to gag.  

“Blood.”  He thought and spat it out.   

Almost afraid to move, he tested out each of his flesh limbs.  Upon finding nothing broken, the young man turned his head to where Alphonse sat just minutes earlier to find the seat empty.   He knew right away that his android brother must have pulled him out of harm’s way and to the safe haven of his chair.   Al did the same thing a week ago which got half of his body blown off. Typical.  Edward almost cursed himself for being so weak that his robot had to save him, then he remembered they just crashed.   

“Alphonse?”   The straps across his chest and between his legs just would not budge, that or his shaking arms just couldn’t work the latches properly.   The alchemist started noticing his peripheral vision become  blurry and and blue. His golden gaze moved toward the instrument panel and flashing lights and text told him right away just why.   The artificial atmosphere of the shuttle was slowly decaying, most likely from damage to the life support systems.   Edward finally unstrapped the restraints but only had enough energy to slump to the floor.   He lost consciousness before his head found the ground.

Instead of inside the shuttle craft on a dying world, Edward Elric found himself walking rolling hills of windswept grass.   He felt warm sunlight on his cheeks as the air moved all about him, causing his fringe to sway and swish around his golden eyes.   The young man moved rapidly causing the garment he wore, a red coat with long tails to billow and flap in time with the wind and grass.    As he rounded a small hill, a structure grew larger and larger as he approached.   This solid yellow house shone as brightly as the sun and it beckoned him, compelling him to walk right to the front door, open it and go inside.   

“Hey you.”   A familiar voice carried down the stairwell as a young woman came into his field of vision.   She wore canvas coveralls, unzipped to her waist and her feet were cushioned by comfortable looking sandals.   “Did you break it so soon?”   Her warm expression changed to anger as she approached.   

“Huh?”

“The arm?  The leg?”   She blew out a sigh and closed her blue eyes.   “I don’t know what you are doing, but I know it’s dangerous.   Why can’t you be more careful!”   She lunged at him and all he saw was cornsilk-yellow hair dash across his eyes and throwing his world into total darkness.   

“It…It can’t be over…not…not like this?”   The broken voice bemoaned.   “He, he just left us here?”

“You can’t see any more, but you know the truth…Father’s gone…Sig’s gone…”  The woman sobbed.  

“Ed?”   Al’s voice wavered.   “Does this mean?”

“I’m sorry, son…but, everyone’s gone.   I failed you both…again.”

“No.”  His heart hurt.   Everyone he loved was gone.  She was gone.   He’d never see the big yellow house with her in it ever again.  “No!”

“Edward?”

He slowly opened his eyes to find brilliant blue ones staring down on him.   Ed also realized that a clear mask separated him from this beautiful face.   

“Breath, dummy.”   Winry commanded.   She thought her kidnapper had died when she found him in a pile by his chair.   Instead of panicking, she grabbed two of the environment suits and got into hers quickly, then struggled to get Edward in at least the helmet of his.   She was fortunate these were thin carbon cloth and not the old type used for spacewalks ten years ago so once the helmet was in place, the rest went on easily.  “Are you still with me?”

“Yeah.”   He couldn’t get the image of the girl in his dream out of his mind.   It was Winry Rockbell, that’s for sure.   But the others, the voices.   They all sounded so familiar yet he couldn’t quite recognize them.   “Must have passed out.”   He moved to a sitting position then the doctor held out her hand and helped him stand.   “Where’s Al?”

“I don’t know…I blacked out when we crashed too.   When I woke up, you were on the floor and all our air was about gone.   I nearly didn’t make it to the suits in time.”

“I’ve got to find him…we are too close to let something as stupid as a crash stop us now.”  He turned and squinted his amber eyes at the bright sunlight searing through the forward windshield of the shuttle.   “You stay here…I’m sure rescue crews are on their way.”   Edward ran toward the exit aperture, but encountered torn instrument panels and debris from inside the craft blocking the round hatch.  “Can you help?”   Winry joined him, helping him move everything out of the way.   Red lights upon the round door indicated that the atmosphere in the short tube leading to the secondary hatch contained no breathable air - it has been opened.   “He’s out there!”  Edward opened the thing with a fast twist and scurried into the tube, indeed the outside hatch was wide open.  “Hey Alphonse!”  

“No you don’t!”   Winry followed the young man and landed with a thump on the hard sandy floor next to him.  “That ship’s unstable…you’re likely a walking brain injury too if you think you can roam around here and survive!”   She didn’t quite know why she was going to follow this man, this crazy, kidnapping, horrible pilot and illegal alchemist.   But, Winry remembered his face, a face she’d seen in her dreams and that had to mean something.  It had to mean she was supposed to know him, supposed to interact with him if she’d dreamed of him.   She wondered just why she realized this.   

“Al!  Alphonse!”   Ed paid her no mind, and continued looking for his brother.   

“Brother!”   A voice carried through the sand and wind.   

“This way!”  Edward and Winry ran to the source of the voice and soon found the android half buried in sand.   “Al!  You ok?”

“Fine, the inner door was damaged and I got sucked out of the craft trying to secure the secondary one shortly after we landed…”  

“Do you know how far we are off course?”  Ed helped Winry scoop sand from the robot and helped him to stand.  

“Ed…we’re here.”   Al pointed to the ground.   “The center of Amestris…it’s right beneath us.”

“Amestris?”  Winry scrunched her brow.   “Why is that familiar?”

“It was an ancient country, the pre-catastrophe historical texts only mention it as the source of the disaster which caused the slow death of this planet.” Edward sighed.  “It’s the reason alchemy was outlawed in the colonies.”

“Why?  Why come all the way here?”   She motioned to the vast dunes of sand.   

                                               

                                                                                                                                                             Illustration by [@hirstories](https://tmblr.co/mbKOrbVUKuvtGehwcX5zdHg)

“We think…no, we know we’ll find the way to fix everything…the way to set everything right.”  Alphonse answered.  

“I don’t understand!”  The wind picked up causing the young woman to raise her voice.  “Make what right?”  She turned to Al.  “You want to bring him back to life?”  

“You don’t know what you’re talking about!”  Ed snarled.  

“I know that Alphonse Elric died seven years ago!”  She couldn’t stop the words, they flew from her lips.

“Winry, you’re wrong.”  Alphonse stepped toward her.   

“I read the article…Ed lost his arm and leg in the same accident.”  

“You don’t know anything.”  Edward stepped away, afraid he’d say more than he should.

“I didn’t die…Brother did lose his arm.  I was dying though and Brother used alchemy to try to save me.”   He watched the girl’s face twist with confusion.  

“Only, I couldn’t…I didn’t…I could only gain his soul for the price I paid.”  His amber eyes met her blue ones again, this time he truly hoped she’d understand.   “I paid for his soul with my leg and the only thing I could do with it was bond it to the robot that was helping us with the crops.”   

“I’m…” She stuttered, not believing.  “What you’re telling me is that your brother is really IN the robot?”   

“It’s true.  Sounds impossible, but true.”  Alphonse answered.   “Brother was swooped up by the military when they discovered the runes we used.  You see, even though alchemy is outlawed, our army still researches it and even use it to defend the colonies.”  

“It’s just…hard to imagine.”   She started to speak again when the ground rumbled and shook.  “Hey?”

“Earthquake?”  

“No!  It’s the sand, it’s moving!”

Before the trio could move an inch from the spot they stood, the ground began to swirl and sand began to pull them down.  

“Can you transmute?”  Al yelled over the wind.   

“Into what?  Glass?”  

“Just do something!”  Winry ordered.

Edward raised his hands to clap but didn’t get the opportunity as a wave of sand crashed over him, burying all three.   


	7. Chapter 6

“Who are you?”  The young man quizzed the pile of dazed and environment suit clad humans at his feet.   “Did you know you broke our ceiling?”   He squatted down to see them better.   “What strange clothing you have.”   

“What?”   Winry slowly stood and rubbed her sore back side.   “You…you look like Al!”    

“Al?”   

“That’s…that’s me!”  Alphonse stood and eyed the golden haired young man.  Indeed, they were identical.   “Brother?”  He helped Edward up.   

“Who are you?”  The young alchemist didn’t waste time and lunged forward at the Alphonse-clone.  The youth responded with no reaction, yet maintained his curious stare.  “Why do you look like my brother?”   

“Are you Father’s other children?”   He slowly circled Edward, looking him from shoe to top of his helmet. “You have his eyes…”  The young man turned his gaze toward Winry. “You…you cannot be his child…”   He dismissed her and looked at Alphonse, still battered and half of his face covered with synthetic skin.   “You are a machine…”   

“Father said to bring any living humans to him, so that’s what I’ll do.”  He waved his hand and a small rumbling emanated from the surrounding tunnel walls.   

“Are you going to answer me?”  Ed’s left eye twitched with anger, he hated being ignored.   Suddenly, five dark figures materialized from the earthen walls and encircled the trio.   

“This one and this one…”  The young man pointed to Edward and Winry.  “Take to Father.   This one.”  He pointed to Al, “You can destroy.”   The boy stepped back so that the golems could follow his directions.   

“You’re not laying a hand on him!”  Ed lunged at a clay figure, kicking it in it’s blurred face.  His foot sunk into the mud and made a gash as it exited, however, the hole closed up and reformed.   

“Stop it!’  Winry yelled as she was grabbed around her waist and hoisted up, she punched and scraped at the mud man as he slung her over his shoulder, but each time, her hand came back with dirt and cold, wet, earth and any damage she inflicted was repaired.   

“This may help!”  Alphonse slapped his own uneven hands together and then on the ground, an alchemic reaction started, turning any water into ice, it traveled along the wet ground and to the golems freezing them in place.   

“Oh, you know alchemy?”   The young man finally showed emotion, and his face glowed with pure glee at finding someone other than his father who could transmute and without a circle!

“We sure do!”  Ed clapped his own hands and touched his right metal arm with his left, running that hand down the length of the forearm and a metal blade formed.   He ran toward the youth.   

“So do I.”  The golden-haired man smiled as his own alchemic reaction started at the ground and a wall of rock grew toward the ceiling, stopping Ed’s blade from striking his face.  

“Brother!”   Alphonse readied for his own transmutation, but was hit with a wall of stone from both sides, trapping his metal body and encasing it in rock.   

“Al!  Alphonse!”  Edward screeched and turned to where his brother once stood.   He ran past Winry, still up in the air, held by frozen golem arms as she struggled to free herself.   The young alchemist moved his arms to transmute, but felt a strong hand on his shoulder spin him around.   He was faced to face with the Alphonse-clone.   

“Good night.”   He smiled and flicked Edward with his middle finger, hitting him square in the middle of the mask over his face.  When he did, small blue sparks flew from the spot of contact and Ed fell to the ground.   

“Edward!”   Winry yelled and squirmed in the mud-man’s arms.   “What did you do?”   

“He’s so hostile…he’ll feel a lot better when he wakes up.  You will too.”   The youth walked past her, touching her own helmeted head as he went, causing the girl to fall limp.   The ice started to melt and slowly all the mud-men came to life, one picking up Ed’s body and slinging him over his shoulder.

“Let’s go!”   

* * *

“This is highly against protocol…and impractical, Sir.”  Lt. Hawkeye continued to question her superior’s decision to lead the team on the planet.   “You are too important to be here and risk injury.”   

She knew he’d not put up with any other of his subordinates questioning his orders.   She’d saved his hide many times by asking him questions like this.   

“Correct, but if I’m to answer to General Grumman and Sol Command, I need to take care of this personally…”  His eyes scrutinized the harsh sandy terrain, sand beating against the clear mask of his helmet.   “Besides, when we are successful and bring back the whelp and rescue the girl…I’ll be famous!”   He really wanted to get to Ed first, to understand what the kid was doing and formulate some sort of spin or damage control before he didn’t have any influence at all.   

“The beacons in their suits are coming from this direction.”   Havoc pointed into the swirling sand and dust.   The rest of the party followed.   

“Are you picking up our signal?”   Havoc spoke into the communicator in his helmet.   The voice of Kain Fuery responded.  

“Loud and clear.  Breda and I will hold down the fort and transmit to Falmon on Resembool Station.   Can do a fly by and pick you up if any trouble.”  

“Thanks, bud.”   He answered.   

“Are we any closer?”   Mustang couldn’t understand how far the three could have gotten away from their disabled shuttle.   

“They are right here…right below us.”  Havoc, smacked the homing device he carried to make sure it worked, double checked the coordinates and spoke again.  “Yup, it says we are standing right on them.”

“They have to be buried, then.”  Riza didn’t like that thought, although with the suits still on, they should still have enough oxygen.   “We’ll have to find a way to…”   Her words were cut off by a loud rumbling and movement beneath her feet.

“Lieutenant!”  Mustang lunged toward her as her body slipped into the sand.  He landed on his side and the sand began to suck him in as well.  

“Boss!”  Havoc moved to grab Mustang’s feet, but his hand just grazed the Colonel as the sand swallowed him.  “Boss!”   He sat back as the ground settled, he was too afraid to move.  The soldier pressed a button on his collar and spoke into the hidden microphone within his helmet.   “Fuery!  Breda! Get your asses here!”   

* * *

She found herself again in that familiar place, yet it was a place she’d never seen before.  An old fashioned bedroom of some sort, with wooden floors and a door you had to open with a handle.   Machine parts cluttered all the free space, yet there seemed to be some order in their placement.   Her eyes fell upon his broad back as he grabbed his shirt with a metal hand.   Golden hair flipped as he moved and stern and equally golden eyes glared at her.   

_“You make it sound so easy!”   His voice was angry._

_“Just say it, just say you’ll save the country and get your original bodies back!”  She heard her own voice raised, felt worry in her gut as she uttered the words.   When he responded with some flippant answer, her eyes filled with water, but she willed not a single tear to fall._

“Are you going to wake up?”  

“Huh?”  Winry opened her eyes and discovered her peripheral vision was no longer obscured by the helmet, in fact, she no longer wore the environment suit at all.  “Where are we?”  She discovered that she was in a dark room, the floor and walls were stone.   Her hands were bound behind her back.  Across from her, another figure sat, she could only make out the faint golden glow of his hair.

“I’m not sure.”   He answered, the voice belonging to Edward.   “Fuckers took my new arm.”   Indeed, his right arm was gone, his left hand lashed behind his back, the rope wrapped securely several times around his torso.  Ed wobbled and tried to stand, not having proper balance with the missing limb, but finally making his way over to Winry and plopping down beside her.   “You ok?”

“OK?”   She felt her anger swell.  “Let me see.   You punched me in the face a few days ago.  Injected me with a sedative – IN MY NECK!   And, you kidnapped me.  Not to mention, you crashed the getaway ship and let me get RE-KIDNAPPED…”   The young woman growled.   “No, I’m not OK…I’m the furthest from Ok a person could possibly be!”   

“Yeah…”  Ed leaned up against the wall.   “About punching you…THAT I’m really sorry about.   But, I know the hypodermic thingy doesn’t hurt, so I’m not sorry about that.”   

“You probably ruined my career, you know.”  She huffed.   “I’d just put in for a transfer to Saturn.   I was going places.”   

“Saturn’s no fun, you’d hate it.”  He countered.   

“Ed?”   Her voice quieted down.   “Do you think Al’s ok?”  She remembered seeing him get squished.

“Well, he’s probably walking funny, but yeah, as long as his seal is intact, he’ll be coming for us.”   

“Seal?”  

“I put it in his programming, sort of a computerized bit of alchemy that holds the real Al’s soul to the robot Al’s body.”   Edward seemed very sure of his craft and his brother’s ability to survive.   “I’ll be worried if we don’t see him soon, though.”   He tried to think of other things.   “Hey, you were mumbling in your sleep…something about saving the country.”   

“Nothing, just a stupid dream.”

“Do you have those sort of dreams often?”  He wondered out loud because he had those dreams a lot.

“Sometimes.”   

“Winry?”

“Yeah?”

He took a deep breath, hoping that she’d not think that along with being a criminal kidnapper, he was also an insane kidnapper.   “I have them too.”   

She took this bit of information and rolled it around in her head.   It suddenly occurred to her that she’d seen the face of the man she talked to over and over in that bedroom in her dream.   He wore his golden hair up in a high ponytail and when he turned to her, his eyes were glowing gold.   Edward Elric spoke to her in all those dreams.   Suddenly, she needed to know what he saw within his own.  

“Can you tell me?”   She steeled herself for his answer and listened intently as he told her stories she’s already seen in her own mind over and over since she was old enough to dream at all.   When he was done, she leaned back and took a deep breath.   

“I think we were supposed to meet like this…I was supposed to find this place.”  

“It’s too close, too similar not to be something…” She racked her brain for any sort of medical information on shared dreams, but found nothing.   

Illustration by [Dzioo](http://dzioo.tumblr.com/)

“Hey!”   The Alphonse-clone flew open the door, letting in enough light to show that they were in some sort of large broom closet.   “Father sent me to bring you back, please don’t fuss, you’re going to be happy, he says!”   He knelt down and offered help to Winry to get her to standing, then did the same with Edward, who glared at him all the way.  

“I’m too tired to fight with you, seeing that it appears I’m supposed to be here for some reason.”  Ed scowled.   He just wanted to see who this “Father” was and get to the bottom of why he was pulled to this dead planet.

“Alright!”   

The boy led them outside and into a broad corridor of smooth, painted walls. Several golems followed.   They only went a short distance when the entrance to a grand room appeared.   As they strode into the room, they could see a solitary figure standing in the center.

“Wait!”  Winry scrunched her eyes, she knew the face, she recognized the man before her.  “I know you!”   

“The Rockbell’s child…so good for you to come.”   He smiled and pat her head.  “Let me unbind you.”  With a flick of his wrist, the ropes around her hands unraveled and she brought them to the front of her body.

“Dr. Hohenheim?”   

“What are you two going on about?”  Ed demanded.

“That’s right, that’s one of the names I’ve gone by recently.”   

“Winry, what are you talking about?”  

“When I attended medical school, Dr. Hohenheim, he ran the Eugenics Department.”  She clearly recalled the odd coloring of golden hair and eyes. “He retired a while back and I lost track of him.”   She hated the idea of eugenics and that the Sol-System even practiced and implemented such arcane programs.   

“Eugenics?”  Ed questioned, somehow the fact escaped him that his military and government planned the reproduction and birth of every citizen in its colonies.    

“Planned human reproduction.”  The older man spoke as he were delivering a class lecture, He moved toward Edward and freed the boy’s sole hand.  “With such small amount of humanity, particular traits had to be isolated so everyone could be born as close to possible the way they were…or the souls would not bind without further intervention.”   

“What the HELL are you talking about?”  Ed demanded.   

“So many millions of people lost two thousand years ago…it took that long for me to study and replicate each one – well, each one I hadn’t already used up.”  He gazed at Edward, and let out an audible sigh.  “The five sacrifices, you were the hardest to bring back because your souls didn’t become part of me.”   

“Speak English, you fucker!”  

“Your souls, that is, the souls of the Elric brothers, Izumi Curtis, Roy Mustang…Van Hohenheim…those souls went to the Otzer when their bodies died.   I had to sacrifice many other souls to pull them out until I was ready to have them reborn.”   He didn’t move from the spot in the center of the room.  

“The hard part was figuring out how to create human life without its own inherent soul.   After all, two souls cannot be bound to one body…not that I’ve been able to create anyway.”   

“You…you mean, you engineered ALL the people living in the colonies?”  Winry tried to wrap her mind around this.   Her mom and dad were married and she was delivered naturally.   

“Yes.   I knew of all the pregnancies.  As soon as a woman suspected she was with child, she reported to a doctor, as is the current law.  Those doctors reported to me.  Her natural fetus was replaced with one specifically created to be born, a child created without a soul until I gave it one of mine.”   

“That’s, that’s barbaric!”  Winry couldn’t stop thinking about all the millions of babies not allowed to live, the natural children of all the mothers who received, instead, genetically manufactured children with “souls” from this monster.  Then she realized, her own soul came from him too.   

Father turned to Winry.  “You’re not going to be helpful in this, but you can observe…over there.”   He pointed to a far corner and before she could yelp, a mud-man scooped her up and planted her where Father directed.   The golden-haired older man turned to Edward, who still scowled.   “You, you are my child!”  He wrapped his arms around the alchemist, bringing the shorter youth into a loving embrace.   “I knew you’d come!”   

“What you said…what you said about replacing babies…is that, is that what happened with me and my brother?”   Ed nearly spat, the idea of someone messing with his mother like that made his blood boil.   

“Edward…”   The name rolled off of Father’s lips like he’d said it a thousand times.   “You don’t remember me, do you?  I don’t suppose you would, you were two and Alphonse just born when I left.”  

“What?”  Ed’s heart flipped, he couldn’t believe what this man implied.   “What are you saying?”

“I love your mother.   Well, let me rephrase that.   Van Hohenheim loves your mother.   I learned to feel that love by letting him.   But to answer your question, yes…your mother’s children were replaced with you and your brother.”  He seemed to tear up upon mentioning Alphonse.   

“I don’t believe you!”   

“Edward.”  Father nearly chastised him.   “I’m so sorry about the accident.”   This time, the man moved and came slowly toward Ed.   He placed his hands on his shoulders.   “It’s the same as before, I had to leave to finish my work, to create the array…”  

“You lying sack of shit! What do you mean like before?‘”

“…But, because I did leave…”  Father gazed past the young man, ignoring his question.  “…you boys had to work hard to help Trisha, just like before.  Although I let you both learn alchemy, I never anticipated one of you dying before we began again.”   He pat his beard with his right index finger.  “I just thought that Izumi would have come too, but no matter…I’ll be the Fifth.”  

“Stand away from him!”  The booming baritone voice echoed through the circular chamber.  Mustang had heard the horrible story and hoped it just that, a story.   Following him into the room and carrying her sidearm at ready, Lieutenant Hawkeye scanned the room for anything that could cause her superior harm.   Alphonse Elric, more battered and bent entered last.   

“Alphonse!”  Ed dismissed the tall man before him and launched himself toward his brother, setting his jaw in the crook of the robot’s neck in the best hug the one-armed man could muster.   

“Edward, you have some explaining to do, you’re probably going to end up in stockades when we return…”  Riza spoke without taking her eyes or weapon off of Father.   

“Alphonse?”   Father peered around Edward’s head to get a look at the robot.  His golden eyes widened and he burst into laughter.   “That’s right!”  He wiped a happy tear from his eye.  “That’s right, you did it again, Edward, you saved him didn’t you.”   

“Sir, you better start explaining yourself or…”  

Boom!

Mustang fell to the ground in a heap, the shotgun blast hitting him square in the chest.   

“Colonel!”  Riza dropped her guard as well as her body to the floor hoping he still lived.   A gaping wound lay upon his chest, blood seeping slowly and darkening his blue uniform.   Yet, he breathed.  

“Good job, child.”  Father patted the shoulder of the Alphonse-clone, who held the now antique weapon.   “If you’d make the the human transmutation array like you’ve practiced, we can get started.”  The boy smiled, set down the weapon and began drawing his favorite alchemic array on the stone floor.   

“I had trouble with your souls.”  He walked to Riza passing Alphonse and Edward, who stood there completely stunned by what they heard and that this man actually shot Roy Mustang.   “…you’ll want to cart the Colonel over to the array before he dies.   I don’t want to lose him, he’s a good man, well, sort of.”  

“You bastard!”  Riza screamed and raised her weapon, firing it at Father.  The bullets struck his chest, making holes in his shirt, then they popped right back out and fell to the ground.   Her sidearm emptied, she reached for her second and third weapon, emptying each into the man.  She felt defeat each time a bullet fell to the floor.   

“You better activate the array, or, he’ll die soon.”  Father sighed.  “And this was my favorite shirt.”  

“What are you talking about?”  The Lieutenant muttered, tears blinding her.  “I don’t know how to activate anything.”   By this time, golems congregated around Ed, Al, Winry and the fallen Mustang and Riza.   The Alphonse-clone gently took one of Mustang’s hands and drug his limp form over the circle he’d just drawn.   

“Like I said, your two souls gave me some problems.   You didn’t want to separate.   I got so flustered that I made a mistake.”  The golden child helped Riza to standing and pulled her numb body over to Mustang.   “Got you two mixed up.  But I was able to stabilize the soul-mind links despite you being in the wrong bodies.”  He chuckled.  “You know what to do…I know you’ve studied it because you could.”

“How…how did you know?”  Riza turned to Father, tears falling freely down her beautiful face.   

“Dear, I let you, that’s why.   Now activate it before he dies and you lose him again.”   

“I, I won’t let that happen…I won’t let her die, not again.”   Riza brought her hands down on the array, a blue light grew brighter and brighter and engulfed Mustang.   When it died down, Riza was gone.

“What?”   Roy Mustang sat up, rubbed his bare chest through the hole in the front of his uniform then slowly stood.

“Good.”  Father spoke.   “You need to stand out of the way.”  One of the golems took Mustang’s wrist and led the dazed man over to Winry and stood guard.   Before the elder man could speak again, another brilliant flash of blue light beamed from the transmutation circle and when it died, Riza Hawkeye stood, her eyes cast down to the floor.   “What did the Truth extract from you?”  Father scrutinized her form, looking for what was missing.   She raised her head.

“I, I, I can’t see.”   Her brown eyes opened wide and in the good light of the room, even Edward could see that they no longer sparkled, but stared into nothing with bleak dullness.   She was blind.  

“Everyone!  To your places!”  Father outstretched his arms as the golems lumbered into a large circle around everyone.   The elder man took his own spot completing the circle which consisted of Alphonse, the Alphonse-clone, Edward, Riza and finally Father.

The ground shook and rumbled.   Parts of the ceiling fell and stones rolled from their resting places.   Suddenly, bright light rained down upon the seven human forms as an enormous hole opened up above them and the bright sun shone down upon their startled faces.   Father’s alchemy kept the atmosphere inside the room so that the sacrifices could breath and live through this new ordeal.   Seven human forms watched as the moon, in her gray splendor, moved in front of the sun and they were plunged into darkness.


	8. Chapter 7

Edward didn’t realize that the whole room, hell, the whole damn underground cavern for mile and miles was a transmutation circle.   He did understand that this creep, the guy claiming to be his father activated a circle during the solar eclipse, causing everything to go black.   He figured he must have passed out because when he opened his eyes, he was laying on hard rubble and jagged stones.   

“Al?  Winry?”  He yelled, hoping to find his companions.   Instead, he saw as shock of golden hair and ran to the form, now motionless on the floor.   “Hey, Alphonse!”  Ed knelt down and shook the robot, but he failed to move, he just stared at the now cloudy sky.   

“Over here, Brother!”   The sound came from another direction and it stunned the young alchemist.   He was looking at Al, but his voice, it was over in another part of the room.  He stared toward the voice and his vision finally cleared.  The Alphonse-clone was walking toward him, a smile plastered wide across his face.   “It’s me!”   

“Wait…wait a minute…Al?”  He looked down at the robot who gazed lifelessly up at the newly forming clouds.   The clouds rumbled and rain began to fall on the Earth for the first time in over a thousand years.   Edward also realized that no alchemy held the oxygen in the room, they were breathing air, air absent from this world for as long as the rain.

“It’s really me!”  Al grabbed Ed in a big hug and lifted him up, twirling him around with glee.  “I’m in my lookalike!  Its really me!”   

“You see, he really just wanted to redeem himself.”   Father came forward, followed by Winry and Mustang who helped Riza.   “The dwarf in the flask…he finally realized what it was like to be human.”   

“I, I remember…”  Winry whispered but they all heard her.   She remembered Resembool and running in fields of grass.   She remembered the Elric brothers’ laughter and her own tears falling when her parents – her first parents died.   

“I, I do too.”  Mustang remembered living with his father and getting the flame alchemy tattoo when he once was Riza Hawkeye.   

“Did I really have to go blind again?”  Riza remembered performing human transmutation the first time as Roy Mustang and losing her sight before.   She also remembered tripping over the corpses of the dead of Amestris when Father succeeded in taking all their souls.  

Edward remembered too.  He remembered his last moments, taking days to get back to Resembool and bury Winry, Pinako and all the Briggs men.  He remember a few weeks later when Al’s soul could no longer hold on to the armor and he left him totally alone.   He remembered taking Mustangs firearm and …

“You see, he released the Earth’s soul back, he was saving that one with mine for last.”   

“What are you?”  Ed approached Father.  

“I’m sorry you didn’t get your limbs back.  There is such a thing as fate, and as best as he tried, he couldn’t contain it.”  

“Please, explain to us, we don’t understand!”  Winry came to Ed’s side, she intertwined her right hand with the fingers of his left and they both held on to each other, not wanting to disconnect or lose each other all over again.   

“The Dwarf in the Flask, Father…he’s gone, he’s gone back to where he came from at last.”   

“Then, who, who are you?”  Riza spoke, boldly now that she remembered her past life as Roy Mustang   Roy, now by her side, helping her as always.   

“I’m the last soul he kept, I’m Ed and Al’s father, Van Hohenheim  and I can’t wait to see Trisha again.

End.

“ _Our breath rose in the cold_

 _like a hundred souls escaping_ …”

**[A Dark Congregation](http://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DeMnlxvwmgbc&t=NjdmZmY5NjM1MzhjZGNjMDhkMTU5MGRkYzc1NGY3M2FhZWExYzE5Myx2Y0h2djdMag%3D%3D) by The Hush Sound**

 

**This work was inspired by[Divine Right of Kings](https://www.fanfiction.net/s/8493111/1/Divine-Right-of-Kings) by [Oedipus Tex](https://www.fanfiction.net/u/844337/Oedipus-Tex)**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have a bunch of ideas of the continuation of this AU. 1. Ed's recovery from not once but passing out three times...jk. 2. a whole montage of the crew rebuilding a civilization on Earth now that the planet was restored to habitability, like the end of Wall-E :P 3. Ed, Winry and Riza and Roy rediscovering their respective relationship and the memories still coming to them of their previous lives. 4. How Ed escapes prison for his crimes. 5. General misadventures of the Golden Trio now reunited and seeking out loved ones that have also been reborn. 6. Does Riza (really Mustang reborn) get her sight back? 7. Secondary plot regarding just why cyborgs are put down and the military's dark secret about that and about alchemy in general...I just didn't get to elaborate in Begin the Begin, but have the structure of that figured out in my mind. :) Who knows...but I have bunches of WIP fics I want to tend to as well. 
> 
> I hoped you enjoyed Begin the Begin. Props to the artists! FMA Big Bang 2016 was my first and a very positive and fun (but hard) experience.


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